thing 21

My Facebook pics

Ok, this was a little too easy.  I am afraid I did something wrong because it was that easy.  I logged in using facebook and allowed it to use my facebook pictures.  This was really cool.  It picked random pictures of my kids.  I liked this.  I am not sure how much an account would cost with them.  We just get 30 seconds for free.
This was fun and I liked it, but now I want to talk about the practical applications of this.  I could only see myself using this one time a year.  I think it would be sentimental to play a video/slideshow like this at the end of the school year.  I guess you could do this throughout the year, I think it would just be more meaningful one time at the end of the year.

I decided to spend a little time searching on the web what other teachers were using animoto.  I think a video slideshow was mentioned the most.  However, I did watch a few videos of what teachers did with this.  I saw a presentation done with the alphabet.  Letters were created using real life things like yarn and macaroni.  As the letters were flashing by, music was playing in the background.  I am glad I spent time searching what educator were doing with this, because I couldn't see past the idea of using pictures and making a slideshow. 

Oh, wow.  I just watch an AMAZING powerpoint.  It was about the civil rights movement and was more powerful and education than any lecture could be.
http://animoto.com/education  (this is the page you can find that powerpoint...you have to go to the bottom of the page and click on the civil rights one...I think there are five examples of how educators are using animoto in the classroom.

When i first played around with this, I though there is no way this is applicable in the classroom.  However, I have changed my mind.  I love the idea of video presentations...so much more interesting that a lecture or a traditional powerpoint!

thing 20

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBsb5RNzdVs&feature=plcp I love youtube and use it all the time. I posted a link that will take you to the first video I had to create on youtube. I actually remember how stressful this assignment was and how difficult it was for me to go through the whole process. I am usually like that the first time I have to do something new:) I feel like its impossible, but then when I finish I always realize how ridiculous I was to get stressed out over something. This video was done for the purpose of math 1410. We basically had to show a lesson being taught. This lesson was me teaching my kids how to count to "honey"..(If you had Math 1410, then you know what is means to count in base 8 and you know what honey means....lol) You tube is great. I have taken math 1410, 1420, and stat 1530 online...and youtube helped me soooooo much. Sometimes our professors would give us a specific link to watch that would go with the lesson. However, many times I would search for something to get extra help with a concept. Also, I use youtube to listen to music for free. I just hook my phone to this wire (I dont even know what the wire is called) and it plays the music from my phone just like its on the radio. My kids love this. We have listened to many popular songs and have not had to pay anything for them. Even me, eing technologically challenged, understand youtube and realize its value. It can be fun to play around with. I have often searched for old theme songs to my favorite cartoons or watch old commericals. My girls (ages 9,6, and 3, also love to watch videos on you tube. We often watch The Chimpmunks sing Michael Jackson songs. I also like watching segments of shows like 20/20 or The Today Show that I missed. That being said, youtube needs to be used with caution when it comes to our students. It was very easy to access inappropriate things. Even if you have private settings, having the kids sit in front of youtube without supervision is a risk. I guess the best way to do it with students is to either have them watch a video (like maybe further instructions on a homework assignment) in class with your supervision (that is on private settings) or send them a link. As I was playing around with youtube, I saw a lot of comments that people posted underneath a video that were inappropriate. I know you can report someone, but I am not sure the process or the ramifications of it. I really like you tube, and I love all the extra help it can give a student. I certainly see the value of this web 2.0!

Thing 19

I liked how this project set me up for Thing 19 with Thing 18. Thing 18 was about facebook, which I think we are all familiar with. As I was exploring around with Thing 18, I kept thinking how it would be more applicable is the "social network" revolved only around teaching. I think I even mentioned that I do not really enjoy facebook but I keep it because I have a few teacher friends that I like to talk to. So I was really excited when I got to Thing 19 and was introduced to networking outside of facebook. I had never heard of TeacherPop, but of course I joined it. I immediately noticed some names on it I commented on a person named Jeremy's post. I actually think her is in my technology class.Another one of the discovery exercises I was required to do was post a picture. I remember when this was a difficult task for me. (yeah, posting a picture)But I have become a pro at this by now. I had a picture saved on my desktop and uploaded it easily. I then joined shelfari. I even added my favorite book which is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I do not have time to read as much as I would like, but I love to read. I love books and plan on incorporating a lot of different works of literature into my lesson plans. I think a site that this might be helpful in the classroom. I could get good ideas on which books other people think are worthy. I noticed my friend from this technology class has an account too and has lots of books selected. I think I will like this site. The one thing a little frustrating is having to sign up for so many different things. Its hard keeping up with everything I have created an account for. I hope all my classmates dont wait till the last minute to do some of these projects because sometimes it takes a few days to get approval to be a part of the social network. In fact, I am waiting for approval for TLNing right now. It took me a few days to get approval for teacher pop...SO IF ANYONE IS READING THIS...DONT WAIT TILL THE LAST MINUTE TO FINISH THESE 23 THINGS. Until today, facebook was the only social network I belonged too. I actually think that teacherpop and some of these other networks will be more applicable in the classroom. I look forward to communicating and exchanging ideas with other pre-service teachers. (and teachers)

Thing 18

I never really thought about social networking being beneficial for teachers, so I tried to keep an open mind throughout this process. I do have a Facebook account. I do not not use it as much as I use to. I have actually thought about deleting it. I have a few "friends" on my account that get to political for me. I have a few teacher friends thought that I talk to on occasion, and that is basically why I keep it. I don't see them on a regular basis, so this is a good way to communicate with them. I joined pinterest. I like this a lot. Its a great place to get ideas for the classroom, as well as good ideas for the home. I enjoy seeing all the crafty and seasonal things that teachers post and I look forward to using some of them in my classroom. I did add APSU college of Education of Facebook. I had not done this in the past, so I am glad thing 18 suggested doing it. I can certainly see the usefulness of this. I immediately saw comments and posts from students in the education department asking and answering important questions about assignments and different dates. I like this. I also recognized a person that I became friends with in a different class last semester so I sent a friend request. I think that social networking for teachers can be a great thing. I think that it would be more appropriate if there was a network that was just for teachers. I could do without all the inappropriate ads and comments that people put on Facebook. I like the idea of being able to communicate with a group of people that use the network for the same purpose. I am not really interested in if you are voting for Obama or Romeny, and it seems that Facebook it bombarded with that right now. So far, I like pinterest and google blogger for school ideas. In fact, I had to do a unit plan for 3070 and I used google blogger a lot to get ideas. I thing that educators need to be aware of social networking as opportunities for sharing ideas. I also think that (especially middle and high school) teachers need to be aware of social networking because it has become a way of life todays teenagers. There are negative to Facebook such as cyber bullying. I dont think at this time that any of the social networks that I am familiar with are really appropriate for the classroom. There is too much of a risk, really. ( Twitter is okay too, but I honestly prefer blogging. (and this 23 things project is the first time I have ever blogged). Facebook is okay, and I will keep it for now. The link to my account is https://www.facebook.com/marianne.spencer.7 I did friend request Alexis Wylie. She is in this technology class and 2 other classes with me. I like having connections with people that are going through the whole college experience with me. Facebook can be a very useful tool when everyone uses it responsibly.

Thing 17

I REALLY liked this activity. Not only was it easy, but I can already see what a valuable tool this will be for me in the classroom. I think I will absolutely use social bookmarking. The you tube tutorials that this guy does are always great. He is able to make an abstract concept and simplifies it and makes it concrete for people like me that are not that technologically advanced:)After watching the tutorial, I looked for the bookmarks on my own PC. Funny how sites are marked on there like PBS Kids and Reading Eggs. I find it funny that my 9 or 6 year old (or maybe even my 3 year old...lol) knew how to bookmark, yet I was clueless to this on my toolbar. I understand how having sites like Delicious are much more useful than our own bookmarks on our personal PC toolbar. For one, the public cant see what I have bookmarked on my PC so it is of no value other than to myself. Also, it does not do me any good if I am away from my PC and need something I have bookmarked on it. This is the first "discovery" I made with this activity. Diigo was the first time I have ever used any sort of social bookmarking for EDU 3040. I love it. I am glad that we all (in the class) had to find a site we found useful and bookmark it for others to see. I have already looked at a few that my classmates have bookmarked. I think that teachers can certainly take advantage of social bookmarking. One of our big projects (as a student this semester) was creating a unit plan. We all had to do a lot of researching and looking for resources to incorporate in our unit plan. I mostly used Google blogger to get ideas. (BTW, I would have NEVER known about Google blogger if it wasn't for this class!) I know that sites like this with social bookmarking will save me so much time as a teacher and give me great ideas and suggestions for new strategies. I spent a little time on Delicious. I typed in educational technology and found a lot of stuff on Web 2.0....We haven't done all of them, but I decided to look up a little more on what cloud is. After that, I looked up some more education stuff. I found a great website called Readwritethink.org. This was a great site that I LOVED. There were a lot of great ideas on this. I learned what a diamante poem was and how to teach elementary kids how to do them. I really liked this activity and I think all teachers can benefit from social bookmarking. It is certainly more than just being able to access our personal bookmarks away from home. It is a great place to share ideas and learn from others.

Thing 16

The first thing tried to explore was pageflakes because it had a catchy name. But I dont think this site exists anymore because got a message that said "DNS service for this domain has expired with DNS Made Easy". So I then chose igoogle because was already a little familiar with Google. I liked the layout of this page but there was a message that said that igoogle would no longer be available after November 2013. Even though that gives me a year, I imagine I wont use this much. I think as the year progresses the site plans to take features off. I did like this page though. It was familiar and looked a lot like my msn home page. What I really liked though was that on this you could delete things you did not use. For example, I do not use gmail, so I could remove this part off of the page. I liked that feature. Although I do not use one currently, I like the calendar that Google offers. It was very easy to use and very easy to add events. I really like how I get reminders sent right to my phone letting me know about upcoming events. I don't even have to go to my calender to keep up with it! My daughter's 3rd grade teacher uses a calender of event on her shutterfly account. She will add things to the calendar about upcoming spelling tests, or field trips, parent/teacher conferences, etc. I also get reminders 2 nights before on my phone. I think this is great and I am sure I will use something like this in my classroom to communicate and remind parents of important dates. The next thing I explored was Rmember the milk. I have a friend that has this app, and I know she likes it. I saw a barcode and I used my phone to scan it and now I have the app on my phone. I am still amazed that I can use my phone to scan bar codes and that automatically gives me the app! I played around with the online remember the milk. It was easy to navigate, but I am not sure I will use it. I prefer the calendar to the to do lists. Maybe after spending more time with it, I will change my miind. But as for now, I like the google calender by Google. I liked bloglines. It allows you to be alerted if there have been any updates/changes to a blog you follow. I have already noticed that there are a lot of great blogs on goolgeblogger that teachers use to share lessonplans. This would be a great way to be alerted about updates. Although I guess my RSS feeder does this too. I also really liked gliffy. I love flowcharts and diagrams and can certainly see myself using something like this when assigning research/writing projects. I like that we are being exposed to web 2.0 that are designed to save us time. But it sure it taking a long time learning about them:)